On a clear day in February, Patrick Greed takes me to the brow of a hill overlooking what used to be his farm. Around us stretches the green countryside of Devon’s Killerton estate, radiant in the winter sun. Nestled in …
Britain is stronger divided
Simon Schama’s latest television series, Story of Us, raises a number of awkward questions — beginning with its title. The series reflects, among other things, on the divisions in British society and the role of culture in trying to heal …
Keir Starmer’s foolish China strategy
Last month’s release of DeepSeek’s latest AI model shattered assumptions about Silicon Valley’s technological exceptionalism. Some have even called it China’s “Sputnik moment”. But China’s rise to the frontier of AI is no accident. It is the product of decades …
The fantasy of British defence
British party politics has in recent decades become an exercise in evading reality, only dealing with the world — and our country’s material conditions — as our leaders would wish them to be. Westminster’s chaotic reaction to Washington’s abrupt, if …
How to free the universities
In more good news for British universities, “woke waste” is now gaining traction in the UK media, and firmly in the firing line are mad-sounding research projects at the taxpayers’ expense. According to a joint investigation by The Sun and …
War isn’t in Britain’s interests
Having earned MAGA’s respect for Brexit, Britain was in prime position to exploit the shift in global order heralded by Trump 2.0. After all, Brexit Britain broke with globalism long before JD Vance came to bury it at Munich. The …
The secret world of hobbyists
Phil Parker is the editor of Garden Rail magazine. He’s a passionate man — especially on the subject of steam engines. “The steam engine is the nearest anybody has come to building a living thing,” he says. “It may be …
Britain’s post-truth politics
“I know something you don’t know” is one of the most elementally effective sentences in our language. It’s a blatant hook for attention, so instantly powerful that even small children set it to a taunting little tune and dangle it …
Can Starmer exploit Europe’s crisis?
“The big dividing line among political leaders is between those who are conviction politicians and those who are not,” wrote Jonathan Powell, Keir Starmer’s National Security Adviser, in his 2010 book, The New Machiavelli. “Strong leaders go into meetings knowing …
How the BBC betrayed EastEnders
Around a decade ago, walking through the Bogside, I noticed something unusual in front of Free Derry Corner. Before a small crew, preparing to do a piece to camera, was Ross Kemp, presumably filming something like “Britain’s Deadliest Terrorists”. Locals …
Why Gen Z hates Britain
Should we get there, it’s strange to imagine Gen Z in our twilight years. Will our women, scraggly stick-and-poke tattoos blooming over wrinkled arms, still call each other “diva” in their knitting circles? Will the men, swapping gurning to EDM …
How ideology infiltrated Prevent
It is customary in the aftermath of an atrocity for the spotlight to fall on Prevent, one of the pillars of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy. It has been under renewed scrutiny since last year’s Southport murders, after it came to …
Will Kemi Badenoch last the year?
Reading the newspaper coverage of Margaret Thatcher’s election as Conservative Party leader is a reminder that the figure of history we know today was far from certain to emerge. “New Tory chief just lucky, says Mr Enoch Powell,” ran one …
Morrissey is the villain we need
It’s been 20 years since I first set eyes on a Smiths LP. The LP in question — Meat is Murder — was released 40 years ago this week. I loved that cover. It made me ponder an alternative universe, …
Labour has outlawed banter
Have you heard the one about the Labour WhatsApp chat that got leaked? It was called “Trigger Me Timbers” and specialised in offensive banter. Health Minister Andrew Gwynne was the first and most high-profile group member to lose his job …